Diving Adventures at Long Dong Bay

Long Dong Bay is one of the original scuba diving sites in northern Taiwan. Great for both Fun Diving and teaching courses, regardless, it's a terrific place to practice your favorite recreational water activity. It is located along a stretch of coast fantastic for diving. Keelung City all the way down to Yilan is accessible via the coastal highway number 2 for both boat and shore dives. Long Dong in Chinese means ‘Dragon’s Cave’. The name comes from the underwater rock formation starting at 14 meters and stretches for about 50 meters to a depth of 25 meters. It is said to resemble a dragon laying down, with its back and spines sticking up from the sea bottom, and the cave being the bay itself.

Scuba divers, snorkelers and freedivers can find an abundance of marine life in close proximity to the shore. The calm waters within the bay provide a comfortable, safe place for many water activities.  On shore, while resting, you can take in the beautiful landscape, with stunning mountains and cliffs reaching out towards the sea. There is a hike to a lighthouse on the northern cape, and a hike along the cliff on the southern cape where you may see rock climbers on the tallest face that Taiwan has to offer.

From May to September, the calm waters of Long Dong Bay make it a great location for teaching any of the PADI Discover Scuba Diving to Divemaster courses.  Students are able to work on their diving skills while observing a variety fish around them. Advanced scuba divers can work on their buoyancy along the northern wall, or practice their navigation while exploring the underwater terrain. This site is great for photographers who can encounter some unique species such as the flying gurnard or flounders along the sandy bottom or schools of porcupine pufferfish or striped yellow snappers along the wall. During the spring dive shops will suspend bamboo trees to create a squid nursery where you can see thousands of squid eggs and if you're lucky, encounter numerous squid using it as their home.

With Taiwan growing in local and international popularity, why not give Long Dong Bay a try to see what this alluring site has to offer! Contact us at Fun Divers Taiwan to book your next dive trip.
* Trips to Long Dong Bay are subject to scheduling.

To book your next dive trip with Fun Divers Taiwan, contact us at  

www.fundiverstw.com

Happy Bubbles!

Spotting Greater Amberjacks in Taiwan (杜氏鰤)

As you are gliding through the water, enjoying your dive, a glimmer of light catches your attention.  Curious, you move ahead to investigate, when suddenly, a large stream of silver torpedoes dart past you continuously.  After a few moments, they swim by again, and you get a closer look.  You notice the amber colored horizontal stripe along the center of its body; which connects the mouth, eye, and fin.  Their size and speed is astonishing and it gets your heart pumping as you realize you have spotted an “Amberjack”!

The name jack fish includes numerous species around the world but the type most commonly spotted by scuba divers in the waters around Taiwan is the Greater Amberjack.  The Greater Amberjack averages from 7 to 15 kg but fishermen have caught some as large as 70 kg.  They are commonly found between 20 and 70 meters deep in rocky areas or near wrecks and other underwater structures but also venture closer to shore to hunt.

Amberjacks are predators so they are built for speed, which is apparent from their shape.  Their size and strength also makes them a prized gamefish for anglers since they put up a big fight and are challenging to reel in.  Unfortunately, because of their fleshy meat, they are also a popular fish for sushi and are commonly found in restaurants worldwide.

Your best chance to see Amberjacks is from winter into late spring when they spend more time closer to shore for mating.  They head into deeper waters after May, but can be spotted occasionally year round if you’re lucky.  They seem fearless, and almost playful when in the vicinity of divers and can often be seen swimming several laps around Divers and their bubble columns. Make sure to take the opportunity and marvel in this exquisite sight before they depart for another year!

For more info about these excursions, you can go to  email us at  

www.fundiverstw.com

Happy Bubbles!

Kickstart Your 2025 Diving Season with Fun Divers Taiwan

 

With 2024 coming to an end, the anticipation is mounting for the upcoming year. Everyone is thinking of when and where they can get their first dives in 2025.  Nights are filled with dreams of doing your final checks, putting on the mask and strapping on the fins, ready to do the giant stride and take your first breaths in the depths of the sea once again.

 

We have a big year planned with trips scheduled to a variety of destinations, domestic and international. Try some Fun new Dive locations or take that next course to advance your skills and knowledge.  We offer bi-weekly boat dives and shore dives at a variety of dive sites in the northeast coast. Scuba diving in Taiwan is better than most would anticipate and continually getting more convenient as the years go by. If you want to experience what Taiwan has to offer, you can come to our website to lock in your next dive trip.

We will start the 2025 Scuba Diving season with a SPLASH!  The first trip planned will be to Palau for 15 dives. It'll be for 7 days, 6 nights at one of the world's top dive destinations. Explore lush coral reefs, drop-off walls, sunken wrecks, the Blue Hole, and Blue Corner. Have the chance to swim among sharks, manta rays, napoleon wrasse, schools of barracudas, snappers, trevally, and much more! Book now to secure your spot on this amazing trip!

Next will be a trip to Coron, Philippines to visit a variety of Imperial Japanese Navy Wrecks from World War II. Coron is located in the northern part of the Province of Palawan. This is where a majority of the shipwrecks were located when the US Navy sabotaged the Japanese fleet in 1944.  These wrecks have now become covered in coral reef and became a top notch dive destination for shipwrecks. Many of the wrecks are deeper than 18m, therefore, it is highly recommended to have or take the PADI Advanced Open Water and Deep Specialty courses, in order to be able to reach the depths necessary to see these amazing wrecks. Besides the wrecks, Coron is also well known for its crystal clear water, white sand beaches, and limestone cliffs.

In Taiwan, we plan boat dive trips to Turtle Island's rare underwater hot springs. With geysers spewing out hot bubbles from the ocean bed, and the sulphur covered water, it's a unique sight that's unique for any diver! The first Taiwanese Navy wrecks to be intentionally decommissioned and intentionally sunk was the Wan An Jian Wreck on the coast of Yilan County. Covered in whip coral and countless fish, this wreck is a sure crowd pleaser. The 1km long water outlet to the Longmen Power Plant in Fulong was fully built, but never turned on has now become a dive site they call, "The Cathdral" or "Sanctum". Here you'll enter a large 12m wide chamber that's houses soft coral, whip corals, and often lobsters. Surrounding the chamber are schools of batfish, porcupine puffers, axfish, and glassfish. These are a few of the many diverse kinds of diving that can be enjoyed just in the vicinity of New Taipei City.

Hopefully, you are as excited as we are for this upcoming season! Looking forward to making bubbles and new dive companions! The exhilaration of tracking down those amberjacks, octopi, peacock mantis shrimp, and flamboyant cuttlefish, of course, while practicing proper trim and buoyancy!

If it's been awhile and haven't dived in some time, have no fear, we can give you a refresher with our enhanced course. All of our courses are offered in English and Chinese. 

For more information about courses and trips, check out the events on our website 

www.fundiverstw.com 

Happy Bubbles!